The police urgently need Harry Hole…. A killer is stalking Oslo's streets. Police officers are being slain at the scenes of crimes they once investigated but failed to solve. The murders are brutal, the media reaction hysterical. But this time, Harry can't help.... For years, detective Harry Hole has been at the center of every major criminal investigation in Oslo. His dedication to his job and his brilliant insights have saved the lives of countless people. But now, with those he loves most facing terrible danger, Harry is not in a position to protect anyone. Least of all himself...

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Phantom

When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong - fleeing the traumas of life as a cop - he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets.

The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8

Two young women are found murdered in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches fever pitch: Could this be the work of a serial killer? The crime scenes offer no coherent clues, the police investigation is stalled, and the one man who might be able to help doesn't want to be found. Traumatized by his last case, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong's opium dens. Yet when he is compelled, at last, to return to Norway - his father is dying - Harry's buried instincts begin to take over. Then a female MP is discovered brutally murdered.

The Redeemer: Harry Hole, Book 6

Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. An explosion cuts through the music and the bitter cold: One of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range. Harry Hole - the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and worst civil servant - has little to work with: no suspect, no weapon, and no motive. But Harry’s troubles will multiply. As the search closes in, the killer becomes increasingly desperate, and Harry’s chase takes him to the most forbidden corners of the former Yugoslavia. Yet it’s when he returns to Oslo that he encounters true darkness....

The Snowman

Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf. Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother - and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn....

The Devil's Star

A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star - a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the force and is left with little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and get to work. A wave of similar murders is on the horizon....

Nemesis

Captured on closed-circuit television: A man walks into an Oslo bank, puts a gun to a cashier’s head, and tells her to count to 25. When he doesn’t get his money fast enough, he pulls the trigger. The young woman dies—and two million Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace.

Cockroaches: The Second Inspector Harry Hole Novel

When the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case. But once he arrives Harry discovers that this case is about much more than one random murder. There is something else, something more pervasive, scrabbling around behind the scenes. Or, put another way, for every cockroach you see in your hotel room, there are hundreds behind the walls.

The Son: A Novel

Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit - or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes. Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption....

The Redbreast

It is 1944: Daniel, a soldier, legendary among the Norwegians fighting the advance of Bolshevism on the Russian front, is killed. Two years later, a wounded soldier wakes up in a Vienna hospital. He becomes involved with a young nurse, the consequences of which will ripple forward to the turn of the next century. In 1999, Harry Hole, alone again after having caused an embarrassment in the line of duty, has been promoted to inspector and is lumbered with surveillance duties. He is assigned the task of monitoring neo-Nazi activities....

The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel

Before Harry took on the neo-Nazi gangs of Oslo, before he met Rakel, before The Snowman tried to take everything he held dear, he went to Australia. Harry Hole is sent to Sydney to investigate the murder of Inger Holter, a young Norwegian girl who was working in a bar. Initially sidelined as an outsider, Harry becomes central to the Australian police investigation when they start to notice a number of unsolved rape and murder cases around the country. The victims were usually young blondes. Inger had a number of admirers, each with his own share of secrets, but there is no obvious suspect.

Headhunters

Roger Brown is a corporate headhunter, and he’s a master of his profession. But one career simply can’t support his luxurious lifestyle and his wife’s fledgling art gallery. At an art opening one night he meets Clas Greve, who is not only the perfect candidate for a major CEO job, but also, perhaps, the answer to his financial woes: Greve just so happens to mention that he owns a priceless Peter Paul Rubens painting that’s been lost since World War II - and Roger Brown just so happens to dabble in art theft.

The Keeper of Lost Causes: Department Q, Book 1

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The Absent One

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A Conspiracy of Faith: Department Q, Book 3

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The Purity of Vengeance: A Department Q Novel

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The Marco Effect: Department Q, Book 5

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Blood on Snow: A novel

This is the story of Olav: an extremely talented "fixer" for one of Oslo's most powerful crime bosses. But Olav is also an unusually complicated fixer. He has a capacity for love that is as far-reaching as is his gift for murder. He is our straightforward, calm-in-the-face-of-crisis narrator with a storyteller's hypnotic knack for fantasy. He has an "innate talent for subordination" but running through his veins is a "virus" born of the power over life and death.

Buried: Department Q, Book 5

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Gathering Prey: Prey, Book 25

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Faceless Killers: A Kurt Wallander Mystery

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Publisher's Summary

Harry Hole returns - or does he? - in a terrifyingly paced, vertiginous new roller coaster of a thriller by the internationally best-selling author of The Snowman and The Redeemer, "the king of Scandinavian crime fiction" (Kirkus).

The police urgently need Harry Hole…. A killer is stalking Oslo's streets. Police officers are being slain at the scenes of crimes they once investigated but failed to solve. The murders are brutal, the media reaction hysterical.

But this time, Harry can't help.... For years, detective Harry Hole has been at the center of every major criminal investigation in Oslo. His dedication to his job and his brilliant insights have saved the lives of countless people. But now, with those he loves most facing terrible danger, Harry is not in a position to protect anyone.

If this isn't your first Harry Hole novel, all you really need to know that Police is every bit as good as Snowman, The Bat and Devil's Star. And it's read by the best British narrator, john Lee.

If you've never listened to a book by Jo Nesbo, now is the time to start. It's the best in its genre including all the great American and British works. The police work is gritty, meticulous, competitive and brilliant. The story is simply magnificent. It's mystery is unique and, well, mysterious.

Sometimes I hate reviewing books because I simply cannot devote the time to do it justice.Do yourself a favor and listen to Police.

What a wonderful continuation of the saga. I will leave any description of the story to others... Suffice it to say that Mr. Nesbø does not disappoint and in fact rewards the reader with hours of enjoyment. However being a fan of audio books to bring additional interest to activities like biking, running, laundry, etc. I found myself incredibly disappointed with the book as performed my John Lee. I felt his interpretation of many of the voices to be offputting, especially the females. He just could not capture the essence of the characters that Jo Nesbø has spent 10 books crafting. Using a Welsh brogue for one of the characters was just weird. Sean Barrett also narrates this book. And is far superior and giving you the haunting feel as the plot twists and turns. Please Jo...no more Lee. And I totally understand that the majority of listeners are simply enthralled with Mr. Lee. I am not one of them. If only Robin Sachs were still with us...both he and Sean were far better equipped to handle the special needs required to really bring Jo Nesbø books to life. Let Mr. Lee stick with period piece novels like the Century Trilogy at which he is exceedingly good.

Jo Nesbo just gets better and better!!! If you like Nesbo's Harry Hole series, then you must read this one. It is a ride and a half. I kept thinking that I couldn't take it anymore, but you just cannot stop listening. A word about John Lee: I am in love with this man as a narrator. Absolutely the best.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Police?

Several, but all would be spoilers, so...I will keep them to myself.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to all of the Harry Hole series and this one may be one of the best. Harry is still plagued by his demons, but is not controlled by them. This book was a slight surprise because I though the series ended with the last book, but once again Harry Hole manages to escape. He does, however, make a later than normal appearance in this book. It is much less "dark" than many in the series.

If you want to listen to this book, I would suggest starting at the beginning of the series (although you can skip The Bat since that is based in Australia rather than Oslo, Norway) The setting is just as interesting as the characters, so the Oslo based books are much better. Once you start listening, and like the genre, you will be hooked, and wind up using many of your monthly credits by the time you are done.

We have the same characters again, some who will wind up dead or at least maimed, but won't give it away who that would be. Harry once again is the detective who ca figure out the good from the bad guys.

One issue with book, however, is it leaves you a place to exit the series. Again not giving anything away, when the book ends you may find yourself saying, I better stop now because things can only go downhill again, and you want to happy for Harry. This will be the last one I listen to. It's sort of like the Harry Potter series, and all good things must finally come to an end.

Would you consider the audio edition of Police to be better than the print version?

No. But only because I'm not used to this narrator. I had to check out the book too, just to review that the names he was reading were the ones I was used to hearing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Of course, Harry had always been my favorite in the series, but I guess now it will have to be Baete Lonn. Or will it? Ha ha.

Would you listen to another book narrated by John Lee?

He is a good narrator, but I've listened to the whole series read by Robin Sachs for the most part. John Lee had more of a WW II "... AND WHAT ABOUT OUR BOYS IN THE PACIFIC...." type of news reporter tone.

I loved this book. Police procedurals can all start sounding like one another, but Nesbo brings such a fresh approach with Harry Hole--and his writing skills are so unique--can't wait for the next one.

Of course I miss Robin Sachs wonderful voice, but John Lee does a pretty good job. I can't really think of another narrator who could take over for Robin and still give us the same rough, tough guy voice.

If you have not listened to the series on Harry Hole before, I recommend starting with the first book and continuing in order. When I listened to my first one, it was already far into the story, so I have had to back track somewhat. You will benefit from starting at the beginning, but just remember, they get better - much better - as they progress.

What could Jo Nesbø have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I've read most of the Harry Hole books (and loved them) but this one ranks towards the bottom of the list in terms of the story line. Not enough Harry in the book for me.

What didn’t you like about John Lee’s performance?

But the worst part was John Lee's performance. His interpretation of the female characters is so artificial and sing-songy. I just can't listen to another Jo Nesbo book narrated by him. What a tragedy to have lost Robin Sachs.

I thought I had beat Harry in figuring out who was the murderer, but not why. Turns out I was right ... but there's more to the story. Kudos to Jo Nesbo for such a thriller and such a puzzler, ... even up to the second-last chapter I was still questioning whether I had it right. And, it was only in the last chapter that Nesbo makes all the pieces fall into place.

I assume, if you are reading this review, that you are familiar with the Harry Hole detective series.

If not, go back and get started with "The Bat". There is no noir like Nordic noir, and Jo Nesbo writes great Nordic noir. In my opinion, he is the best of the surprisingly large and productive group of modern, Scandinavian mystery writers,

But if you are familiar with the Harry Hole series, proceed at you own risk. From an aesthetic perspective, the series should end with "The Phantom". By the end of that novel, Nesbo has wrought a Grecian tragedy and brought it to a perfect denouement. Unfortunately Nesbo, like Harry Hole, cannot stop, even when he knows he should; the result is a bit of a hangover.

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